Council Responses to Earthquake Prone Buildings – insights and

update

Inner-City Residents and Business Association

24 April

Neville Brown, Colin Drew

Format

• Setting the Scene - the Christchurch Earthquakes and relevance to Wellington

• Government review processes and initial assessments

• Council responses - work in progress

• Your involvement and expectations

Learnings from Christchurch

• People’s appetite for risk has lessened• A focus on types of buildings that failed • A more pragmatic approach to dealing with

“heritage”• Thinking broader than just safety in buildings• Dealing with uncertainty on levels to code

and regulatory changes

Government review processes

• Royal Commission- Council submission last November

- They have noted potential solutions from Council paper in Feb.

eg. targeted rate for loan repayment

- Interim report in June, final in November

• Building & Housing (DBH) Regulatory Review- Concurrent review of regulatory settings in dealing with earthquake

prone buildings and related matters eg. Building Act, RMA

- WCC undertaking cost-benefit modelling of heritage preservation, increased EP threshold and mitigating residential house losses

- DBH somewhat reliant on Wellington City information for analysis

Up for Consideration

• Central rules versus local flexibility in BA• Earthquake prone threshold• Economic resilience & heritage objectives• Triggers for strengthening work• Building standards changed• Building grading system• Regulatory Changes (BA, Unit Titles Act,

Rating Act, RMA, Historic Places Act)

WCC - Plans from here

• Advocating to Govt for change and $ incentives

• Communications and providing knowledge• Reducing the cost to building owners• A pragmatic approach to heritage preservation• Investigating new technologies• Support services to building owners• Policy and District Plan reviews

$1.45 million in LTP to support such initiatives

Priority Activities

• Local Government Leadership- represented on review sector reference group

- providing evidence-based input and advice

- provision of information and wider communications to citizens

• Residential Homes- engineering support services

- advisory material

Priority Activities

• Access to finance options- targeted rate on a building as bank loan repayment

- $s for public good element of priority heritage buildings

- incentives for residential properties (non BA)

• Prioritising heritage buildings- 835 buildings/objects covered by heritage provisions

- alignment of RMA and Building Act provisions

- reviewing our processes

Priority Activities

• Building assessments- advance evaluations to identify EPBs in Wellington

- identify buildings with dangerous features

- identify buildings posing risk to lifelines & other property

• New technologies – lowering costs- project partnering with engineers & researchers

- staged and targeted treatments

Key Messages

• Need to balance life-safety and city resilience objectives, with level of risk and costs

• Government will need to be convinced of the need for legislative changes and funding support for building owners

• Wellington city can lead the way in providing national solutions

How can you be involved ?

• Submit to LTP on earthquake strengthening work – what are the priorities

• Inform friends and colleagues of the facts• Share information, views and building owners’

experiences as evidence for change• Form policy positions that Council should consider• Identify projects for collaborative solutions

What do you expect of the Council ?

DISCUSSION